My Postgraduate Students

This is the group of postgraduate students who are in my class. They are a great group. They do not talk as much as the undergrads. I was told that they have matured to a point where they are not so talkative.

 At the end of the last class, they really opened up. I was teaching them about interviewing. They have not had much formal training in how to talk to people, especially in difficult situations. I told them about the time I interviewed a mother whose son had just killed himself accidentally with his father’s unsecured handgun. I was their age, 24, and in Portland at KOIN-TV. A few said they simply could not have that conversation. We discussed situations where this type of interview might come up in China: the parents of a child killed in an earthquake; an interview with a corrupt local official; people who live in the “slums” who can’t get a job because the government would not educate them when they were young. All of these stories are real, and they need to be told.

 They will need to decide if they will tell them.

 One more note about these students. Here, going to college is a gift, an honor. This generation of Chinese college students is here because their families have sacrificed everything. Many of the students I am teaching have parents who were not allowed to attend college. Their parents were told college was not important. It was a waste of time. The reality was the government did not want too many educated people. It is different now, and these students understand the honor they have of attending college.